The European Central Bank has today published the Report on Financial Structures (RFS) 2015. The RFS succeeds the Banking Structures Report (BSR) and covers not only the banking sector, but also other financial intermediaries, such as insurance corporations and pension funds (ICPFs), as well as non-bank and non-insurance financial intermediaries. Looking at interconnectedness across different parts of the financial sector, the report shows that banks and other financial intermediaries (OFIs) are the largest holders of loans. OFIs are also the largest counterparties. For debt securities, banks are both the largest holders and the largest counterparties.  Continue reading…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published its response to the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) payday lending market investigation. In February 2015, the CMA proposed six remedies to improve competition in the payday lending market, following the introduction of a price cap for high-cost short-term credit (HCSTC) by the FCA last year.

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Dollar Financial UK (Dollar), trading as The Money Shop, Payday UK, Payday Express and Ladder Loans has agreed with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to refund over £15.4 million to 147,000 customers, who may have suffered detriment as a result of the firm’s affordability checks, debt collection practices and systems errors.

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The financial and economic crises have led to an enormous plumbing exercise, involving a fundamental re-design of the global and European regulatory and supervisory system. This book systematically assesses the big items on the G-20 and EU agendas and the effectiveness with which they have been implemented in the EU. Its publication coincides with the demand by European Commissioner Jonathan Hill, in the context of the Capital Markets Union, for a ‘comprehensive review’ of the impact and coherence of EU legislation in the area of financial services.
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Managing health, safety and security risks to workers on international travel and assignment is the subject of a new paper from the Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA), International SOS, the world’s leading medical and travel security risk services company and global law firm DLA Piper.

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ESMA is extending the deadline for its open call for candidates for its Corporate Finance Standing Committee’s Consultative Working Group (CFSC CWG) to 31 October.  Continue reading…

Prior to the onset of the financial crisis in 2007, most policymakers traditionally assumed that price stability  should be the prime objective of monetary policy, typically combining a medium-term inflation target with capacity utilisation objectives such as the highest attainable employment or output consistent with price stability.

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The European Central Bank (ECB) has today published the 2014 statistics on non-cash payments, which comprise indicators on access to and use of payment services and terminals by the public, as well as volumes and values of transactions processed through payment systems. Statistics are published for each EU Member State, in addition to EU and euro area aggregates and comparative data. Several enhancements were brought to the data thanks to an enhanced methodology, also taking into account the effect of the fuller implementation of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
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By Andy Scherpenberg

Still too few organisations realize just how much recent evolutions in the digital world have changed the spectrum, efficacy, depth and invisibility of fraud. The far-reaching automation and sophistication of the systems of cybercriminals allow them to do a huge amount of damage with a very small team and very little effort. But with terrifying results, if you realize that fraud in 2014 is estimated to cost roughly around 3 trillion euros (yes, that’s a 3 with 12 zeros after it). Continue reading…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), alongside the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), has today published new rules in relation to whistleblowing. These changes follow recommendations in 2013 by the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (PCBS) that banks put in place mechanisms to allow their employees to raise concerns internally (i.e. to ‘blow the whistle’) and that they appoint a senior person to take responsibility for the effectiveness of these arrangements.

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